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Dueling Works / Fighting Game

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Dueling Works — Video Games
Shooters | Fighting | Pinball | Platform | Racing | Eastern RPG | Sandbox | Cross-Genre

  • Initiators / Followers
    • Capsule Pitch Description: Description
    • Implementation: Implementation
  • International Karate (November 1985) / The Way of the Exploding Fist (May 1985)
    • Capsule Pitch Description: Serial Numbers Filed Off ports of Karate Champ released for the Commodore 64 in 1985.
    • Implementation: They're pretty much indistinguishable gameplay-wise, but International Karate is notable for featuring one of the most popular SID tunes ever written, courtesy of Rob Hubbard.
  • Street Fighter II (February 1991) / Fatal Fury (November 1991) & Art of Fighting (1992) & The King of Fighters (1994)
    • Capsule Pitch Description: 2D Fighting Games developed as spiritual sequels to the first Street Fighter, with many former developers of the original game moving from Capcom to SNK.
    • Implementation: Street Fighter II, created by Capcom developers Akira Nishitani and Akiman (of Forgotten Worlds and Final Fight fame), was a direct sequel to the original game, with the new feature to play as eight characters instead of the original two, thus emphasizing co-op play. Fatal Fury, directed by Takashi Nishiyama of SFI, developed at the same time as SFII, focused on interactive stages and gimmicky enemies, at the cost of having only three playable characters. Art of Fighting, directed by Hiroshi Matsumoto of SFI, emphasized a cinematic story / presentation and stamina bars — unlike FF, it came out when SFII was already a success and it was accused of being a much more direct copy. The latter two had sequels which were much more similar to SFII, and eventually had a crossover in The King of Fighters '94, which would end up overshadowing both franchises.
  • Street Fighter II (1991) / Mortal Kombat (1992) (1992)
    • Capsule Pitch Description: The Samurai vs. Knight of fighting games. Mortal Kombat brought a Bloodier and Gorier style, Fatalities, and a much more brutal combat system. During their heyday in the early 90s, "SF vs. MK" was the equivalent of "WRPG vs JRPG" nowadays, with the same amount of prevalent (and annoying) topics devoted to it.
    • Implementation: Mortal Kombat had more unique games churned out for it than Street Fighter.
  • Eternal Champions (1993) / Killer Instinct (1994)
    • Capsule Pitch Description: Dark, violent fighting games made by the leading console manufacturers at the time as a Follow the Leader answer to Mortal Kombat (1992), with outlandish character designs and gallons of Rule of Cool.
    • Implementation: Though spearheaded by Sega and Nintendo, respectively, each game was actually made by a western developer (Eternal Champions was developed by Sega's America-based Interactive Development Division, whereas Killer Instinct was made by Nintendo's newly-acquired second-party developer Rare.) Eternal Champions was developed specifically for the Mega Drive/Genesis, while Killer Instinct was released in arcades first, and later ported to the SNES (rather ironic, since Sega's primary market have always been arcades, whereas Nintendo had otherwise stopped making arcade games by that point). Gameplay-wise, Killer Instinct relied heavily on combos, while Eternal Champions played more similarly to Street Fighter II with the addition of a "special attack meter" to prevent players from abusing special attacks. In lieu of Mortal Kombat, both games also had violent Finishing Moves, though the ones in Killer Instinct, while featuring large amounts of blood, had relatively little gore compared to both Mortal Kombat and Eternal Champions.
  • The Outfoxies (1994) / Super Smash Bros. (1999)
    • Capsule Pitch Description: Arena fighting games with weapon pickups.
    • Implementation: The former is an arcade game with original characters, while the latter is a console game featuring characters from Nintendo's franchises, released 5 years apart from each other.
  • Battle Arena Toshinden (January 1995) / Soul Edge (December 1995)
    • Capsule Pitch Description: Early 3D weapons-based fighting games.
    • Implementation: Both were released in 1995; Toshinden for the PlayStation, Soul for arcades (and ported to PlayStation the following year, rebranded as Soul Blade for the North American and European markets due to trademark issues). Although not obvious at first, Toshinden actually takes place in the (then-)present, while Soul takes place in the 16th century. Toshinden also has a clear anime-based style while Soul went with more stylized realism (similar to its sibling series Tekken).
  • Marvel Super Heroes (October 1995) / Avengers in Galactic Storm (February 1995)
    • Capsule Pitch Description: Arcade fighting games based on Marvel Comics.
    • Implementation: Something so unusual as dueling titles made by rivaling companies (Capcom and Data East, respectively) based around the same license. Both games featured Captain America and Iron Man as playable characters, but otherwise had very little in common. Marvel Super Heroes was a sequel to X-Men: Children of the Atom, was loosely based on the Infinity Gauntlet storyline from the comics, had traditional sprite-based 2D graphics, and a special "Gem" system that gave your character temporary perks by fulfilling certain criteria during the match. Avengers in Galactic Storm was based on the Operation: Galactic Storm storyline, had pre-rendered CG characters and backgrounds on a two-dimensional playing field and was the first fighting game to feature Assist Characters.
  • Marvel vs. Capcom (1996) / Mortal Kombat vs. DC Universe (2008)
    • Capsule Pitch Description: Established fighting franchise crossing over with established comic universe. Capcom achieved such success with this formula back in The '90s.
    • Implementation: While Capcom lost the rights to make more games a few years back, they were finally able to convince Marvel to let them make Marvel vs. Capcom 3. Midway's Mortal Kombat staff, on the other hand was bought by Warner Bros., DC's parent company, shortly after MKvsDCU came out.
  • Street Fighter III (February 1997) / Tekken 3 (March 1997) & Mortal Kombat 4 (September 1997) & Garou: Mark of the Wolves (1999)
    • Capsule Pitch Description: After playing it safe for several years, in the brave new year of 1997 the premier fighting game series were ready to take their next installment in bold new directions. Two years later, SNK followed suit with the final game (at the time) in their earliest fighting game franchise.
    • Implementation: Mortal Kombat 4 took the step into the third dimension, while Street Fighter III stayed in and perfected 2D (it was one of the best-looking 2D games ever at the time of its release). Both games did away with a substantial part of their established cast in favor of new faces, but Street Fighter III especially so (only Ryu and Ken returned, although later updates reintroduced Akuma and Chun-Li). While Mortal Kombat 4 was now 3D, the gameplay still largely took place on a two-dimensional playing field and, with the exception of a sidestep maneuver and the introduction of a weapon system, the gameplay was largely unchanged. Street Fighter III, on the other hand, had substantially altered gameplay with the introduction of dashing, "Super Arts" (players were given a choice of one of three Super Combos pre-match, with their selection also affecting how large their super gauge was and how many supers they could stock), and the new parry system. Tekken 3 added more three dimensional movement by allowing characters to step in and out of the background. It also made reversals available to all characters and introduced the "Tekken Force" beat-em-up mini game. Meanwhile, Garou: Mark of the Wolves followed in Street Fighter III's footsteps, replacing the roster with a new generation of fighters (with Terry being the only returning character) and featuring some beautifully animated 2D artwork. The game also forsook Fatal Fury's iconic plane-shifting mechanic in favor of traditional 2D movement, and also features a "Just Defense" mechanic similar to Street Fighter III's parrying.
  • Super Smash Bros. (1999) / PlayStation All-Stars Battle Royale (2012)
    • Capsule Pitch Description: Console-specific Mascot Fighters, each with a roster of characters associated with the console it is on.
    • Implementation: You defeat opponents in Smash with Ring Outs. In PSASBR, however, you defeat opponents with Limit Breaks instead. The deeper mechanics of the two are very different as well. Sony acknowledges their game's inspiration from Smash, though they also note that many other fighting games served as inspiration as well.
  • Capcom Fighting Evolution (2004) / NeoGeo Battle Coliseum (2005)
    • Capsule Pitch Description: 2D fighting games that were made by their respective companies, Capcom and SNK, as their own respective Spiritual Successors to the Capcom vs. SNK crossovers (and in the the case of the former, Capcom vs. series more generally) in which the respective companies crossover their own respective franchises.
    • Implementation: While both games involve choosing a team of two fighters, CFE features one-on-one fights (with each side deciding which character from the team will fight before each round), while NGBC features Tag Team fights done in a manner similar to SNK's own Kizuna Encounter in single play (that is, with the match ending when either member of the opposing team is knocked out), while two-player matches follow the Marvel vs. Capcom style (with battles only being decided when both members of a team are defeated). CFE focuses exclusively on certain fighting games (Street Fighter II, Street Fighter Alpha, Street Fighter III, Darkstalkers, and Red Earth), while NGBC features characters from a broad part of SNK's catalogue including those not of the fighting game genre such as Metal Slug. In addition, each game also features some Original Generation characters on their respective rosters, those being Ingrid for the former and Yuki and Ai in the latter.
  • (Ultimate) Marvel vs. Capcom 3 (2011) / Injustice: Gods Among Us (2013)
    • Capsule Pitch Description: 2½D fighting games with rosters featuring comic book superheroes and supervillains.
    • Implementation: Another Marvel vs. DC squabble, akin to Marvel vs. Capcom and Mortal Kombat vs. DC Universe above. While MvC3 crosses the Marvel universe with a cast of Capcom characters, Injustice has a roster composed entirely of DC characters note , despite being made by the studio behind Mortal Kombat 9. MvC3 is more of a traditional Capcom vs. fighting game, while Injustice experiments with a number of gimmicks that are either uncommon in fighting games or new to the genre as a whole.
  • Injustice 2 (May 2017) / Marvel vs. Capcom: Infinite (September 2017)
    • Capsule Pitch Description: Sequels to 2½D fighting games with rosters featuring comic book superheroes and supervillains for The Eighth Generation of Console Video Games.
    • Implementation: The sequel (no pun intended) to the squabble between these two same franchises from last generation. This time, both games came out within 12 months of each other. Additionally both made an attempt to be more casual-friendly compared to other games in their developers' stable. Injustice 2 introduced the gear system that allows casual players to customize their characters, though it is banned in Tournament Play, whereas MvC: Infinite goes back to the 2-on-2 format of earlier games, while ditching a lot of old mechanics in favor of a new freeform tag system while bringing back the Infinity Gems from Marvel Super Heroes.
  • Pokkén Tournament DX (September 22, 2017) / Marvel vs. Capcom: Infinite (September 19, 2017)
    • Capsule Pitch Description: Fighting games released on the week of September 22nd, 2017, featuring popular characters from outside the regular fighting genre (Marvel heroes and Pokémon) fighting on mutually exclusive hardware.
    • Implementation: Pokkén DX was not significantly hyped but maintained a steady amount of attention, while Marvel vs. Capcom suffered significant controversies in a number of areas including animations, roster choices, and developer commentaries
  • Marvel vs. Capcom: Infinite (2017) / Dragon Ball FighterZ (2018)
    • Capsule Pitch Description: Tag Team tournament-viable fighting games featuring super-powered combatants from immensely popular long-running franchises.
    • Implementation: After Infinite suffered from several controversies, PR mess-ups, and severe issues regarding presentation, FighterZ got the attention of many who were soured on the latest Marvel vs. Capcom by boasting 3v3 gameplay (Infinite dropped down to 2v2 in contrast with the two previous MvC games) and phenomenal presentation, as expected from Arc System Works. However, FighterZ did eventually suffer from controversy of its own regarding its DLC practices.
  • Marvel vs. Capcom: Infinite (2017) / BlazBlue: Cross Tag Battle (2018)
    • Capsule Pitch Description: 2v2 tag-team tournament-competitive fighting games featuring ensemble casts of super-powered characters from multiple different properties
    • Implementation: Coming onto the scene a month before EVO 2018 was due and with FighterZ still hugely popular at the time, BBTAG was the second Arc System Works game to be competing with MvCI. BBTAG is also a 2v2 crossover fighter featuring an ensemble cast from four of their popular fighting game franchises: BlazBlue, Persona 4, Under Night In-Birth and the highly popular Rooster Teeth anime-styled web animation series RWBY. note 
  • Slap City (2020) / Icons: Combat Arena (2018)
    • Capsule Pitch Description: Platform Fighter games developed by independent teams, intended to become a PC alternative for the Nintendo-exclusive Super Smash Bros. series, while also appealing to its competitive scene. Both were also first released as Early Access.
    • Implementation: Slap City, much like Super Smash Bros., is a Mascot Fighter featuring many of the developer's characters. Icons, on the other hand, has its roster entirely composed of original characters. Notably, the latter's development team had people that previously worked on the famous Game Mod Project M.
  • Super Smash Bros. Ultimate (2018) / Jump Force (2019)
    • Capsule Pitch Description: Crossover fighting games in which characters from Nintendo's history (Smash Bros.) or multiple Shonen Jump franchises (Jump Force) come together to fight against each other.
    • Implementation:
  • Samurai Shodown (2019) / Granblue Fantasy Versus (2020)
    • Capsule Pitch Description: 2D fighting games that return to a more classically grounded style with high damage, stricter movement and shorter combos compared to the "anime" fighting games that have dominated the genre since the late 2000s.
    • Implementation:
  • Guilty Gear -STRIVE- (June 2021) / Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba - The Hinokami Chronicles (October 2021)
    • Capsule Pitch Description: Cel-shaded fighting games both released in 2021 that have gained massive popularity worldwide and include colorful casts of characters.
    • Implementation: Guilty Gear -STRIVE- is a traditional 2D fighting game and a sequel to its predecessor, Guilty Gear Xrd, that improves upon its 2.5D graphics and brings back fan-favorite characters while also introducing new members to the cast. Demon Slayer: Kimetsu No Yaiba - The Hinokami Chronicles is a 3D arena fighting game and the first entry of its game series that also implements 2.5D graphics and has most heroes and villains from its anime's first season as playable characters in the roster. Both series are massively popular in Japan and have gained much-needed attention worldwide.
  • Nickelodeon All-Star Brawl (2021) / MultiVersus (2022)
    • Capsule Pitch Description: New Platform Fighters of The Ninth Generation of Console Video Games, both of them also being Massive Multiplayer Crossovers consisting of a non-video game studio's various series (Nickelodeon for Nickelodeon All-Star Brawl, Warner Bros. for MultiVersus).
    • Implementation: Both Platform Fighters were revealed after all DLC was showcased by Super Smash Bros. Ultimate, with Nickelodeon All-Star Brawl being mainly designed around that of a game similar to a standard Super Smash Bros. game (in particular Super Smash Bros. Melee), with a high focus on a static moveset close to that of its inspiration, is a game that one has to buy for money, and while at first lacking in some areas of content (namely voice acting and story), the developers, Ludosity, have done their part to add more as the game develops. Meanwhile, MultiVersus is designed to do several things differently and with a noticeably higher budget than its rival, with a 2v2 focus on fighting, the game being a F2P game with various perks existing to swap moveset elements around, and having voice acting and story elements right off the bat. While Nickelodeon All-Star Brawl has the advantage of being the older game, its waning viewerbase of actively playing fans could leave the game vulnerable to MultiVersus.
  • Street Fighter 6 (June 2023) / Mortal Kombat 1 (September 2023) / Tekken 8 (January 2024)
    • Capsule Pitch Description: Next-generation iterations of classic Fighting Game franchises from the 1990s, made for The Ninth Generation of Console Video Games
    • Implementation: All three games break new ground for the narratives of their respective stories: SF6 explicitly takes place after Street Fighter III, a notable divergence from the previous games being Interquels set between Street Fighter II and III. MK1, meanwhile, is a Continuity Reboot taking place after the Cosmic Retcon at the end of Mortal Kombat 11: Aftermath. Tekken 8, itself, bills its story as the Grand Finale in the greater ongoing tale of the world-altering family feud amongst the Mishima bloodline. All three games also introduce new mechanics that help them stand out from previous titles; SF6 has the Drive System, a set of universal skills that add a more strategic flair to fights; MK1 has "Kameo Fighters", Assist Characters based on series characters from past titles; and Tekken 8 has the "Heat System", which allows players to activate a Super Mode once per round that opens new strategies and combo potential while encouraging offensive, aggressive play. Of note is the platforms on which these games are released: SF6 does not have a Nintendo Switch version, but will be available on the previous-gen PlayStation 4; while MK1 is next-gen exclusive, and its platform releases include the Switch. Tekken 8 is also next-gen exclusive, but does not have a Switch version.

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